Cruelty
by NerfHerder101
Summary: Because sometimes Tenten wasn't sure what she saw in him, and even doubted if she knew him at all. Nejiten Oneshot Set after HinataNeji fight.


**A/N Plot Bunny from watching the premiere of Hinata and Neji's fight in English. Details may be incorrect.**

He had three months too show those fools who he was. Three months too prove the idiot wrong, three months.

Her eyes avoided his as she engaged him, throwing a kunai at his face and then cutting a string releasing a multitude of weapons that flew out from the forest. Using this as a distraction she darted into his perfect defense, penetrating the circle and flicking a senbon at his face. Even then she didn't meet his eyes. The weapons specialist concentration was perfect, and she was fiercer than ever. Ducking out from close range, she retreated back into long distance, into her safe place. Then she fell too the ground breathing hard and letting out a breath she had been holding.

He observed carefully and kept his own intake of breath even and deep.

His steps were muffled by the flattened grass, but she still heard them come closer. Her eyes closed when he sat down next to her and silence overcame them.

"I heard about your preliminary fight."

He said nothing.

"They said you completely dominated."

Quiet still pentrated.

"They said you were cruel and horrible. They said you almost killed her."

Neji still didn't look away, he was figuring out why she waited until now to meet his eyes. She had been working up the courage to confront him.

"You shouldn't drag your baggage into a fight."

"You don't know anything."

"I know the girl you almost killed was shy and quiet and had no chance of beating you. I know you didn't care and still tried to kill her. I know you hate her father and I know you toyed with her like some si-"

He got up and walked away.

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It was two months before they talked again, besides the one time she had passed by to announce the arrival of Tsuande-sama.

To call a truce of sorts she had invited him to go see the sennin, he flatly turned her down. She duly noted his concentration seemed to fill the grass and trees more than her. She wondered if he even remembered they had been fighting, or if he just didn't care. They hadn't gone this long without seeing each other since they were first put on a team.

She still came to cheer him on and she still couldn't stand for him to lose because she knew winning meant the world to him. Lashing out at someone next to her she defended him voraciously, constantly telling herself he couldn't lose.

_He just couldn't_.

But he did, he fell to the ground with his forehead bared to the world. The seal that left him cold and barren and the past that tore him up inside shown to his tormentors and the world alike.

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Chocolate Brown eyes looked at a ground that seemed to be blurring together.

It had taken her another week to work up the courage to see him. It wasn't her anger that kept her from talking to him anymore; it was her inability to think of anything to say. She stopped by a quaint flower shop on the way buying a bouquet of white lilies from someone who looked suspiciously like Team 10's girl, Ino she thought.

The hospital was so typically white, and quiet - not too mention the stale smell - that she almost blanched. Almost because the nurse at the front desk had sent a warning glare when she had smirked and started play gagging.

His room number was 111, even the hospital was against him.

There was a guard outside the door, one of the Hyuuga – branch member probably – guarding the precious prodigy of their clan. Her eyes widened when a man stepped out of the room, his large back facing her before he turned and looked straight at her. His eyes were as white and steely as Neji's if not slightly less personal. He looked at her flowers and turned his mouth upward into that thing strong men seem to accomplish – the smiling without actually smiling. Even steps passed her and when she regained her senses, she shook with anger. Her flowers may not have been the best, but they were something and all she could afford on the meager salary she received on Genin pay.

In a slightly huffy mood, she pushed her way pass the guard who tried to block her way and entered Neji's room. He turned toward her and it amazed her once again how alike that man's eyes were to his. There was something different though, a calm that had not been there before and evenness in the way he motioned for her to come over. He did that same thing the other man did, looking straight at her flowers.

It was about all Tenten could do not to throw him out the window – she settled for throwing the flowers at his face.

"There not the best, but why is everyone laughing at them! Damn, you're the second person in ten seconds flat to laugh at them."

He smiled. A real smile, surrounded by scattered white lilies and green bouquet wrapping. She stared gaping, they hadn't talked in 68 days, 12 hours, and 39 minutes, Tenten had lost count of the seconds when her mind had gone blank at his smile. Who was counting anyway?

"Do you know what white lilies stand for?"

"Flowers stand for something?" Was her only response.

He smiled again and continued. His words were muddled because she was still trying to wrap her mind around his curved mouth. "It stands for death."

That was when she looked at him nervously, her mouth twitching.

"So, Tenten, who died?"

"Um… your damn pride." That was the wrong thing to say.

His smile disappeared and he sobered up immediately. The room dimmed noticeably to Tenten and she wished she would have walked away. Awkward silence permeated the walls.

He shifted to sit on the edge of the bed, the bed springs groaned in protest. Her eyes shot up and she immediately ran to his side, but he didn't move any farther than that.

"I would've won if you had stopped skipping training."

That was a double edged compliment if she ever heard one and probably the closest to an apology she would ever hear. At that invitation she sat down next to him and curled up on the bed.

"You know you deserved it."

There was that damn silence again.

"I still cheered for you though."

He jerked in surprise and she pondered that maybe he hadn't been as oblivious to her anger as she had first thought. Her head came in contact with his shoulder and she wrapped her arms around his waste.

"I'm really glad you're okay." Tears stung the corner of her eyes and she realized for the first time how hard and lonely it really was without talking to him everyday – even though he never talked back. His arm came up behind her head and he pushed it deeper into him. It was what his mother had done for him when he was a child. Allowing the one she loved to bury himself deep within her, as she tried to soak up all the tears.

And they sat like that for a very long time. Her sobs quieted into sniffles and then disappeared entirely. Neji let her fall to the bed before scooting her over and laying down next to her watching until his strength left him and he collapsed himself. They slept while Konohagakure was ravaged by a demon.

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Hours later she woke up and blushed heavily, before climbing out the window and returning to her own home.

The next day a surprised Naruto, still slightly tired from his fight with Gaara and eating Ramen from his favorites place, was thanked, graciously saluted and patted on the back by a girl with buns on her head, who he thought looked familiar.

His eyes scrunched up he followed her body as she ran off towards the hospital, his attention was grabbed away by the approaching pervert-sennin and he forgot about her.

**A/N Yeah I just don't see Naruto as the type of person to keeps name and faces together real well and Tenten only appeared too him three times at this point and never actually talked to him.**

**Inside the examination room.**

**Inside the Forest of Death, when woke Lee**

**During her fight with Temari, which everyone watched, but was over very quick. (wasn't even fully shown in the manga)**


End file.
